Poteau Main Street Matters

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Downtown Poteau from the Past

At Poteau Main Street Matters, our goal is to help reinvigorate the downtown area. In the past, Downtown Poteau has always been the bustling, lively heart of the city. We hope to bring that sense of life back downtown.

The Downtown Poteau Revitalization Project

This is a comprehensive project aimed at revitalizing and preserving downtown Poteau. If you want to help, please read through the information on this site and then feel free to contact Poteau Main Street Matters.

Visit Historic Downtown Poteau

Downtown Poteau offers several blocks of unique shopping, dining, and other fascinating attractions.

About Poteau Main Street Matters

OFFICE LOCATION:104 N. Witte , Poteau, OKWe are located two doors down from the entrance of the old Lowrey Hotel, now the home of the LeFlore County Museum

Director: Eric Standridge

(918) 647-8648

(a non-profit 501C organization)

In 2005, Poteau was accepted as a Oklahoma Main Street Community.

If you would like to become a member,please contact us by phone, email, or drop by the office.

If you are interested in helping revitalize historic downtown Poteau,you can! Become a member, join a committee, or justmake a tax deductible donation.

Our Mission is to encourage architectural and historical preservation of the downtown area of Poteau through promotion of cultural events and beautification projects in an effort to affect economic revitalization and organization of public resources.

Objective: To raise awareness within the community about what the Poteau Main Street Program does for the community.

Mission Statement: To stimulate economic development and historical preservation of downtown Poteau through promotion of cultural events and beautification projects as an exciting place to shop, work, live, play and invest.

You have reached an old page!

In 2013, Poteau Main Street Matters ceased to exist; instead, we have changed our name to Historic Downtown Poteau, inc. to better reflect what we do.

If you intended to visit this page, feel free to look around for archival information.

We Invite You To Visit Poteau Main Street, Poteau, Oklahoma!

Downtown Poteau contains a great wealth of history, from the old Indian Territory Federal Courthouse to the twin-offices of the Oklahoma Immigration Company. The city has been home to outlaws, bootleggers, railroad barons, and wealthy merchants. It was even home to the Lakeview Landrun!

Today, traces of this history can be seen throughout the old downtown district, from the old bank building that was robbed by Bonnie and Clyde to the Noble-Bird building which housed one of the largest druggists in Eastern Oklahoma. As you stroll down the main street, colorful and interesting shops can now be found in the very buildings that the early pioneers built.

Bridgman's Furniture, one of the oldest furniture stores in Oklahoma, is still ran by the Bridgman family and occupies almost an entire block of downtown Poteau.

The Purple Plume is a high-class fashion and accessories store that is very well-known throughout the region.

The world-famous Warehouse Willy's serves some of the best food to be found for miles around. This resturaunt is decked out in images and items from the distant past.

Peppercorn Antique Mall houses some of the finest antiques in the area. The antiques found here range from glassware to turn-of-the-century furniture.

While the list of fascinating stores can go on, perhaps one of the most interesting attractions in historic downtown Poteau is the LeFlore County Museum at the Hotel Lowrey. This museum, once complete, will house artifacts dating from the ancient Caddoan empire through modern times and is said to be one of the largest of it's kind in Eastern Oklahoma.

Get Involved!

Members of Poteau Main Street Matters have access to Free Educational Workshops, Free Architectural & Design Assistance, Main Street Program Networks, Grants for Improvements in Building Exteriors & More.

We want everyone in the community to appreciate the historic buildings that we have downtown. If we do not rent, sell, and have people preserve these buildings they will disappear. Our children will not know their heritage if these buildings do not exist anymore. The more we sell or rent to a business also brings sales tax revenue to the city. It’s still fun to walk the downtown streets of Poteau to shop, eat, and come to our events.